I have tried to learn Linux for ages, and have experimented with installing Arch and Ubuntu. Usually something goes wrong when I try to set up a desktop environment after installing Arch in VirtualBox. KDE gave me a problem where I couldn’t log in after getting to the point where my username was displayed in a similar format to how it is for Windows. My end use case is to help keep my workflow more organized than haphazardly throwing files somewhere on my desktop or in a folder nested somewhere that I’ll just inevitably lose :(
Somehow after all this time, I feel like I actually understand less about my computer and what I need to understand regarding its facets. Is it an unrealistic goal to want to eventually run a computer with coreboot and a more cybersecurity heavy emphasis? I’m still a noob at this and any advice would be appreciated!
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As a Linux user I can tell you that nothing works. Every single Linux distro requires some amount of work. That’s why I do not use Windows or MacOS since it is so closed ecosystem that you can’t even fix anything when something fails.
I’ve been in your shoes a few months ago. I tried a few distros in VMs and ended up using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. It comes with different GUIs and I decided for KDE. As a beginner TW helped me with the built in snapshots mechanism. So before I did anything, I took a snapshot, did it, and if I fucked up, I could easily rollback and try again. Since TW is a rolling release, I now make a snapshot before and after the system update So I always have some stable Rollback snapshots. Gives me so much safety to fiddle around and learn more about Linux. Been loving it so far.
Make heavy use of ChatGPT. I’ve been chatting about Linux with it for months now.
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KDE is usually fine for a beginner, but don’t start with Arch unless you intend to learn Linux by solving a thousand different technical issues based on vague log statements throwing around terminology you’ve never heard of. KDE and Linux Mint are the most Windows-like Linux environments out of the box.
Ubuntu uses GNOME by default, which doesn’t do a lot of things Windows does. I like it, but others don’t. KDE is a lot more “normal” but setting it up right from scratch is a pain; the Arch masochists may like it, but I sure don’t.
If you pick a distro that ships with KDE I’m sure you’ll be able to use it right after installation. That goes for other desktop environments too, whether it’s Gnome (the Ubuntu/Fedora default), Cinnamon (the Mint default), XFCE, LXDE, or one of the many others.
If you’ve already gotten some usage out of KDE, I suggest trying out Fedora. Fedora has a KDE release that ships with everything you need with a user friendly installer that will take care of pretty much everything for you.
If you want to use Linux with Nvidia hardware (i.e. outside of VirtualBox), consider Pop_OS!, a distribution that prides itself in making the terrible Nvidia drivers work out of the box. Most other GPU vendors are fine with any other distro, but Nvidia requires special handling.
If you do give Arch another go, read through everything completely before even beginning the installation process. Make notes of every decision you make (what network manager do you want to use? are you going to make your life harder by not using systemd? what partition layout do you prefer?) and make sure you’re ready to spend an entire day following guides. You’ll be able to name every component your Linux setup consists of, which is great for troubleshooting, but don’t feel pressured to spends all that time.
There’s a reason the majority of Linux users use Ubuntu or maybe Fedora.
use linux mint, xubuntu, or maybe pclinuxos
I convinced my friend to try out Mint on his laptop a year ago. He fell in love with it almost instantly and have been using it ever since.
it’s good for first timers, or for people who are just less interested in the command line and configuring everything
